Thursday, October 25, 2012

Magic Maddy

Starting pitcher
Zo

Oh my god, you guys! Did you see what happened? The Giants pulled Madison Bumgarner out of 2010 and set him down in Game 2 of the 2012 World Series! Madbum has not been real good in his last 9 starts. This postseason he gave up 6 earned runs against St. Louis in 3 2/3 innings in a loss, and gave up 4 to Cincinnati in 4 1/3 in a blow out loss. This was the guy who sailed to 10 victories before the All Star break and then stumbled down the stretch. Bruce Bochy said that they had discovered, and fixed, a flaw in his delivery. I guess that was right, because he was spectacular. And you could tell, because he had the look.

Passionless. Inscrutable. Icy. Registering the commands from his catcher before uncoiling his long body for that long, smooth, deceptively slow delivery.

This game was a war of attrition. Doug Fister matched Madison through the first six, keeping the Giants from scoring. But he was racking up a pitch count due to the Giants' patience at the plate. When Fister was replaced by Drew Smyly in the seventh, he had thrown 114 pitches. Hunter Pence singled off him after a battle, followed by a walk to Brandon Belt from the young Smyly and a Gregor Blanco sacrifice bunt that never quite rolled foul, so became a base hit. Brandon Crawford hit into a double play, but that allowed the Giants to plate the first run of the game. Ryan Theriot pinch hit for Madison, when Madison wasn't really done. He had thrown only 86 pitches to keep the Tigers scoreless through seven. 2 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts.

The Giants needed a spectacular play in the second inning to keep from playing catch up from the first inning, though. Prince Fielder took first on a HBP, and third on a Delmon Young double to left, and ran for the plate. Gregor Blanco sent the relay to Marco Scutaro, who nailed Fielder at home. Do you like the Giants' defense? In the seventh, Miguel Cabrera walked on 9 pitches. Then Prince Fielder promptly hit into a double play. Even Madison cracked a smile. The Giants added a run in the eighth on a Hunter Pence bases-loaded sacrifice fly off of Otavio Dotel, but charged to Smyly. Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo were nails.

I'm still letting it sink in. The Giants are up 2-0 against the very tough Detroit Tigers. Down the stretch, we won with offense, and now in the post season, our pitching is coming up huge. We have Vogie and Matt ready to start, Tim fresh out of the bullpen if needed, and our relief corps rested and ready.

FOX was so happy for themselves that they had found out that the Giants had turned the first 7-4-2 play in WS history. Trouble is, I don't think that anyone really has the records of early games to be able to search that with absolute certainty. Now, if Detroit had recorded a 1-8 putout, which came close to happening, I have a feeling that that would have truly been a first. That was very scary, & they need to be checking on Fister over the next few days. Those kinds of things can seem OK for awhile, then turn into something horrible.

Wonderful win for our guys!!!!! 2 more to go!!!!!

Oh - by the way - in October 2010, Zo made the supreme sacrifice, hospitalized, so that we could get that first WS title. It's not nearly to the same degree, but I do go 'under-the-knife' today - arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. Any volunteers for surgeries during our next World Series runs? Or, could we actually win it without the need for hospital visits?

That was CLASSIC 2012 Giants baseball. Nothing magical about that one, just super pitching and excellent small ball. I LOVE ME those sac flies!!!The Tigers have to take 4 of the next five from us. That is no small task, especially when we have our two best pitchers going and they just used their two best.Isn't it awesome how our team defense is grabbing headlines? what a cool team we have!!

I just want to bask in the wonderfulness of this. I'm a huge MadBum fan and I'm thrilled about his comeback.And I was actually moved by the beauty of the play that got Fielder at home. Posey played it perfectly, and risk-free. And in retrospect there's no way Scutaro should have been the guy making the relay, but that's how the Giants roll.Speaking of roll, how about that bunt? That made me LOL.

It was interesting how Bumgarner did it, without the velocity he usually had when he was mowing them down before the all star game. Maybe he learned some slow balling from Zito. People worry about Timmy's fastball, but it is harder than Bumgarner's in that game. I guess control with appropriate movement, and good pitch selection rules. Speed alone wont do it, ask Verlander!

No doubt. Some nights it seems like guys get burned on every mistake, other times the batters fail to take advantage, or the fielders are in the right place, etc. It was all working for Maddy on Thursday. Let's hope Vogie has his command tonight. I'm looking forward to the matchups with their sluggers.

I'm betting that if you could see the little location diagrams from TV all piled up on top of each other, you would see lots and lots of balls barely touching the sides and corners. And just outside. Movement, placement and change of speed.

Hector Sanchez is the DH--at least that is the early rumor. Ol' Boch has his reasons, whatever they are, and usually they work out, so I'm not going to worry about it. 9 PA in the post-season, 4 K, 2 BB, 1 H. 227 PA in the regular season, 52 K, 5 BB, 61 H. Career 3.77 pitches per PA. He's a hacker, and you have to figure putting balls in play against a mediocre defensive team is a good idea. I thought it would be Huff vs. RH, but Anibal Sanchez has a reverse split and is tough on lefties. And Arias is used as a defensive replacement so that rules him out. Weird using the extra catcher, but this is for all the marbles and you figure Buster will catch every inning no matter what.

Hey MC - Who sponsors that B/R page anyways where you got them stats? Hector is 22, he has had his ups and downs, but he has kept Posey healthy, and he's learning. I think I would go with Huff for the veteran thing, but if we're doing batter/pitcher he is 0 for 12 against A. Sanchez. Who knows, Hector might come up big. Just please don't bat him 5th Boch.